Falling, Healing, Persevering

Jul 3

I love watching the Tour de France! When I was a senior at DeSales University I joined the cycling team. We competed with many universities around the East coast. I did this primarily so I could claim to be a collegiate athlete for the rest of my life. In reality, I was not much of a competitor, and I cycled because I really enjoyed the sport.

Before my first race, I discovered that it was common practice for cyclists to shave their legs. I’m familiar with this practice from swimmers, but I didn’t know why cyclists would do this. No way could hair be that much of a contributor to air resistance, especially at my speeds. I discovered the reason for shaving was different than I assumed. Cyclists shave their legs because they know eventually they will crash and fall. When you fall and scrape your legs on the pavement, those wounds heal much quicker without the added contamination of hair. Not to be too graphic, but it is easier to pull stones out if you don’t have hair.

I’ve never forgotten that lesson that the best cyclists fall. I crashed in Boston for my second race. I healed. Cyclists shave their legs so they can get up and race again.

A similar insight appears from Francis and Jane over and over again. One of my favorite quotes from St. Jane de Chantal captures this concept of falling, healing, and persevering in our love of God and neighbor.

“Should you fall even fifty times a day, never on any account should that surprise or worry you. Instead, ever so gently set your heart back in the right direction and practice the opposite virtue, all the time speaking words of love and trust to our Lord after you have committed a thousand faults, as much as if you had committed only one. Once we have humbled ourselves for the faults God allows us to become aware of in ourselves, we must forget them and go forward.”

Falling, healing, and persevering is a constant pattern in my life. I’m happy I learned this lesson in cycling. I know I will fall, but the Holy Spirit is at work to heal and give me the courage to persevere. Keep going.

May God Be Praised!